How much integrity do you have to give up to get special guest President George W. Bush to attend your political fundraiser?

In what is clearly a slap across the face of the American people, Congressman Mark Green voted to kill stem cell research.  Even Trent Lott (R-Mississippi), one of the most extreme Senators from the deep south, voted for stem cell research.

This is research that can save lives.  People affected by Parkinsons Disease, Multiple Sclerosis and even Juvenile Diabetes could benefit from a medical breakthrough that stem cell research could bring.

So why would Green be so heartless as to vote against kids with diabetes and wheelchair bound victims of multiple sclerosis?  Why would he choose to be the candidate who intentionally showed less heart than the lion from The Wizard of Oz and less brains than the scarecrow?

Money.

Clearly Green was seeing green and that was a motivator for him. 

This month, Mark Green was the beneficiary of a Bush visit to his fundraiser where Green is estimated to have netted between $600,000 and $1,000,000.  Clearly Green's vote against stem cell research was payback for the Bush visit.  Now it could be one of the 3 key votes that it would take to sustain a Bush veto of the stem cell bill which recently passed congress but which Bush plans to veto because of his own loyalty to the fringe group  inapropriately labeled pro-life movement.

If Green goes so far as to be one of only 3 votes needed to sustain the veto of this life saving research, he's dead in the water.  Governor Jim Doyle's campaign team would be wise to focus on Green's vote but it would be a political gift from Green if Green votes to sustain the one and only veto that Bush has made in his entire career — against stem cell research.

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Post Publication Update: Brewtown Politico talks about the veto.